FESTIVAL

FIRST EDITION OF NORDIC FILM FESTIVAL IN LONDON FULL PROGRAM ANNOUNCED 30th November – 5th December 2012 Riverside Studios, Ciné lumière, Prince Charles Cinema

Nordic Film Festival have announced its first ever festival program for 2012, which will take place between the 30th of November and 5th of December across London at Riverside Studios (Hammersmith), Ciné lumière (South Kensington) and Prince Charles Cinema (Leicester Square).

Nordic Film Festival brings together a broad mix of independent films from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, celebrating the best in Nordic film making past and present. With the recent wave of Nordic fiction that has resonated so strongly with UK audiences, the time seems ripe to celebrate this area of European filmmaking in a festival context. The first ever Nordic Film Festival will open with a special Gala screening of critically acclaimed director Susanne Bier’s LOVE IS ALL YOU NEED starring Pierce Brosnan and Trine Dyrholm on 30 November. Closing the festival will be the UK Premiere Gala screening of Lisa Langseth’s debut feature PURE starring Alicia Vikander (A Royal Affair, Anna Karenina) on 5 December. Nordic Film Festival Director Sonali Joshi from day for night said: “Nordic cinema is thriving, with its vibrant independent filmmaking scene and long-standing traditions of internationally recognised talent. Nordic Film Festival will be the only festival of its kind in the UK, offering a dedicated context through which to celebrate Nordic cinema with the aim of producing a truly creative, exciting and enjoyable festival. We encourage cinema lovers across the capital to participate in our first Nordic Film Festival.”

HELSINKI, FOREVER

Award-winning Finnish director and academic Peter von Bagh's cinematic essay is a montage of visual representations of Helsinki from respected Finnish filmmakers from throughout the years. The director both critiques and affirms past contributions to Finnish visual culture, reliving the past in a dreamlike homage to reel and verse.

BEYOND

In actress turned filmmaker Pernilla August's debut feature, Noomi Rapace (Millennium Trilogy) plays Leena, a woman haunted by a traumatic childhood, tainted by observing drug abuse and domestic violence from those around her. When she receives news of her dying mother, Leena is forced to confront the demons she has long suppressed in this crucially honest and piercingly insightful psychological drama.

OLAFUR ELAISSON: SPACE IS PROCESS

Internationally renowned Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson drew attention in the UK with his 2003 Weather Project at the Tate Modern, where he also returned this year with his "Little Sun" exhibition. Space is Process explores the artistic manifestations of an existentialist mind - art which is in his owns words "open and inclusive, rather than being enclosed and exclusive".